Helping Children Cope With the Loss Of A Pet #Life

"With all my heart I believe it is true, that there is a Heaven for animals, too."

Nancy Tillman

In Loving Memory of KOVU
AKA Meow Meow and Kitty Boy
August 1998-February 18, 2015

This post is dedicated to everyone who has loved and lost a pet. There is no easy way out of dealing with loss. We have watched the steady decline of our lovely kitty boy since last July. It's hard for us as adults to cope with losing him after having him in our lives from the time we were newly weds 16 years ago, to now. The dread of breaking the news to our daughter brought me to tears many times throughout the day.  Here is how we are trying to deal with the loss...

Be As Honest As Possible
Our daughter is five and had noticed the changes in him, he slowly lost the use of his back legs, etc.  We began to talk about the fact that kitty was getting old and was probably experiencing aches and pains like an elderly person was. This opened the door for our girl to initiate many conversations over the last few months- mostly questions about what happens when he's too sick to get to his food and litter. We gave her the truth but also tried to offer comfort in advance.  We believe in heaven, so had told her he would go to heaven one day soon and wouldn't be in pain or sick any more. We haven't given any specific details on where he is physically or how it happened.

Keep Memories Alive
When tears are done we will be ready to talk about all the things we loved about our kitty and share funny stories about being a shameless mooch. We have taken many pictures over the last 16 years and especially in the last 6 months so Princess will have pics with our boy to look back on. We also got a paw print in clay to keep as a physical reminder.

Cry and Talk It Out
There is no replacing a good cry and letting each family member express their sadness and grief. Coming home to an empty house was hard and I'm sure there will be many more hard days and nights to come as we adjust to our routines that used to include our kitty.

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Read A Good Book
I bought a book in preparation for this day. It's called The Heaven of Animals by Nancy Tillman. This lovely hardcover book captures my feeling about animals and what happens to them when they leave us, at least what I hope happens. The illustrations brought tears to our eyes all over again because we found a brown tabby that looks a lot like our boy.


With lots of reassurance and hugs we will get through this sad time. I hope these tips have brought you some encouragement and hope in your own time of sadness. Disclaimer: This post is neither sponsored nor endorsed by any of the people or brands mentioned within.